A Connecticut hedge fund manger under investigation by the Conn. Banking Commission for misleading his investors was fined and issued enforcement actions. News of the investigation into New Canaan resident, Greg Richard Imbruce, was first reported by me at Growth Capital Investor last year. Imbruce, who runs several Stamford-based energy-related investment funds under the umbrella of ASYM Capital, was forced by the Commission to register as an investment advisor, hire a commission-approved compliance officer, and pay a fine of $75,000.

Greg Imbruce, who was previously fined by federal regulator FINRA during his work for Bernnie Madoff’s family office, is still stuck in an expensive litigation battle with some of his largest investors over allegations of fraud and material misrepresentations. These investors, led by Brad Higgins, who works for an Irish family fund called SOS Ventures and did some work for the Bush administration, were successful in outing Imbruce as the General Partner of the fund and removed him from the board of his largest fund investment Starboard Resources. The case, which was first reported at Growth Capital Investor, was made public in Stamford, Conn. state court but Imbruce was able to get it moved to arbitration. The arbitration proceedings are now a battle over Imbruce suing his investors to pay him performance fees and the investors litigating over possible misconduct on how Imbruce spent their money.

One of the most damming charges the Conn. Banking Commission claims was that Imbruce mislead his investors while raising money telling them he had ‘skin in the game’. Meaning he said he had invested his own money into the hedge fund, which litigation is trying to prove he did not. Additional on June 10, 2014 the Commission issued an additional cease and desist order against Imbruce for basically lying to the Commission during one of their interviews. The order reads Imbruce told the Commission he did not pay a finders fee for new a investment in ASYM. But the Commission claims they were able to find proof Imbruce, who at the time did not register as an investment advisor, did pay a finder fee for the new investment in his fund. To accept a fee current laws say you have to be registered with a regulator but to pay the fee you don’t really have to be; so it’s odd Imbruce even bothered to lie to regulators.

The Imbruce consent order says he is not denying or admitting guilt, and unfortunately for his investors, he can use this in his arbitration claim. What the Commission forced him to do is not publicly deny he didn’t do any of the charges they filed against him. This type of settlement is rare as we often see alleged hedge fund bad boys get away with paying regulator fines and then never having to admit they did the crime they are charged with. Imbruce’s fine was tiny and hardly makes a dent in his wallet but I guess the Commissions’ goal was to make a public record of Imbruce’s alleged misconduct against his own investors and his brazen action of breaking Conn. banking laws.

Imbruce is apparently really pissed about this whole thing being made public via my exclusive reporting at Growth Capital Investor and here at teribuhl.com. Last year he tried to hire a top Fairfield County attorney to bribe me with money to take down my reporting on him. Today I received a call from a former Imbruce employee, who was a confidential witness in the Banking Commission investigation, saying Imbruce hired a private eye to find him and call his new employer saying “he had stolen software” from Imbruce while working for his fund. The witness, who was instrumental in providing documented evidence for my reporting and the Commission’s investigation, is currently being strong armed by Imbruce to sign a release. I was told today a condition of the release was to get me to take down my reporting.

Imbruce attorney, a former federal prosecutor, Al Pavlis, did not return an email regarding these recent attempts to control a reporters’ news on his client.

Greg Imbruce wife Alana

Imbruce also told this witness that his wife, Alana Imbruce, was very upset about her husband’s alleged misconduct being reported in the public record and wanted the reporting erased from a google search. The Imbruce family are active members of the Fairfield County club scene and members of Stamford Yacht Club. I told the witness I would never take down the reporting and my editor at Growth Capital Investor supports me in this.

Given the Banking Commission enforcement actions and the enforcement by FINRA are a public record it is odd that Imbruce would go to such lengths to basically intimidate and bribe a journalist covering events that are filed in the courts and told to by a confidential witnesses. This news publication, teribuhl.com, has suffered costly DDOS attacks to the hosting of this site and within the last 30 days there was an attempt to hack into my publishing platform–which have all been reported to the Conn. office of the FBI.

A phone call and email made to Jon Whitcomb, attorney for the Greg Imbruce investors, was not returned for comment. I had asked Whitcomb if he thought Imbruce was trying to intimidate a witness (his former employee) in their litigation.